Necrophos in 7.41f: Sadist and Ghost Shroud got nerfed again

Hello! After patch 7.41f, Necrophos is back in the spotlight: the hero was tweaked a little toward lower survivability and a more modest payoff from Sadist, which means now is a good time to see how he looks in practice and on the numbers.

Role and abilities

Necrophos is a ranged intelligence hero with relatively low complexity and a kit that reads very clearly from the description: he heals allies while also pressuring enemies with damage. His listed roles are Carry, Nuker, Disabler and Durable, but to me he still feels like a hero for drawn-out fights, where value comes not only from damage numbers but also from constant presence in the fight.

• Death Pulse — a wave of death that damages enemies and heals allies.
• Ghost Shroud — sends the hero into the realm of the dead, slows nearby enemies, prevents attacks, amplifies magical damage taken, protects against physical attacks, and increases health and mana regeneration.
• Heartstopper Aura — an aura that causes nearby enemies to gradually lose a portion of their maximum health.
• Death Seeker — with Aghanim’s Shard, turns the hero into a large projectile that flies toward the target and casts Death Pulse around him on arrival.
• Sadist — a innate ability that grants several effects for hero kills.
• Reaper’s Scythe — stuns the chosen target and then deals damage based on its missing health; if the victim dies under the effect, its owner gets the kill and permanently increases health and mana regeneration.

In my view, Necrophos has always had the same big strength: if you let him drag out a fight, he starts winning it simply by being there. But the weakness is familiar too — he’s too easy to punish if he misplays the timing of Ghost Shroud or is left without room to restore health and mana.

Changes in recent patches

• 7.41f: Sadist gives fewer effects for a hero kill — down from 6 to 4. Ghost Shroud was nerfed too: regeneration amplification was reduced from 55/65/75/85% to 45/55/65/75%.
• 7.41e: Sadist’s health and mana regeneration per effect was changed — from 3.7 + 0.3 per level to 3.8 + 0.2 per level. Death Seeker’s cast range was reduced from 750 to 600.
• 7.41b: Death Seeker became more expensive in mana — the cost was increased from 125 to 160.
• 7.41: Sadist no longer scales with Reaper’s Scythe. The regeneration formula per effect was changed from 3.5/5/6.5/8 to 3.7 + 0.3 per level. Ghost Shroud was buffed in terms of regeneration: from 55/60/65/70% to 55/65/75/85%. The level 20 talent for Ghost Shroud regeneration amplification was replaced with +75 cast range, and the level 25 talent was changed from a Heartstopper Aura bonus to +0.3 damage per missing health point for Reaper’s Scythe.

Looking at the whole chain of changes, it seems to me the developers are consistently trimming exactly the hero’s comfort in prolonged trades and his value from endless self-healing. At the same time, Necrophos’ core identity stays the same: he still wants to live in the middle of the fight and punish anyone who can’t remove him quickly.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days Necrophos played 606,121 public matches and has a 51.2% win rate. That puts him 34th out of 127 heroes by win rate and 17th by number of games. To me, that looks like a pretty stable spot without any obvious overperformance in either direction.

• Herald — 53.7%
• Guardian — 52.3%
• Crusader — 51.6%
• Archon — 51.3%
• Legend — 51.0%
• Ancient — 50.1%
• Divine — 49.5%

Interestingly, Necrophos feels noticeably stronger at lower ranks, while the number drops below 50% by Divine. That suggests something simple to me: the cleaner and more disciplined the game gets, the easier the hero is to contain, and the more his value depends on the right timing and positioning.

In professional matches, according to OpenDota, Necrophos has 19 picks, 9 wins, and 53 bans. His win rate there is 47.4%, which already looks like a more cautious attitude toward the hero than in pubs.

Items and matchups

According to OpenDota, in professional matches Necrophos most often buys items that either help him survive a fight or quickly ramp up pressure on the map. What stands out to me here is that builds often include both survivability items and tempo items.

• Starting items: Iron Branch, Faerie Fire, Circlet, Tango, Magic Stick, Magic Wand.
• Early game: Boots of Speed, Bracer, Null Talisman, Boots of Travel, Sacred Relic, Talisman of Evasion.
• Mid game: Radiance, Aghanim’s Shard, Talisman of Evasion, Sacred Relic, Boots of Travel, Blade of Alacrity.
• Late game: Reaver, Heart of Tarrasque, Shiva’s Guard, Black King Bar, Boots of Travel 2, Aghanim’s Scepter.

The matchup picture is interesting too. Necrophos looks best against heroes who struggle to get to him quickly or survive his long damage output efficiently. He looks worse against those who can break his plan for a prolonged fight or stop him from standing his ground comfortably in a battle.

• Best against: Phantom Lancer — 27 games, 74.1% win rate; Terrorblade — 32 games, 68.8% win rate; Io — 24 games, 66.7% win rate.
• Worst against: Enchantress — 23 games, 30.4% win rate; Ancient Apparition — 34 games, 35.3% win rate; Night Stalker — 31 games, 35.5% win rate.

Conclusion

After 7.41f, Necrophos doesn’t feel broken to me, but it’s definitely too early to write him off. He can still be extremely annoying in long fights, and his pub statistics back that up, even if in the professional scene the hero looks much more restrained. I think the key question right now is whether he’ll have enough survivability after another nerf to Ghost Shroud and Sadist to keep forcing his style of play, rather than just waiting for a good chance to capitalize on someone else’s mistake.

Source: official Dota 2 data and OpenDota.

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